Courthouses vs. Statehouses?

Just over twenty years ago, the Kentucky Supreme Court declared the commonwealth\u27s primary and secondary public-education finance system-indeed, the entire system of primary and secondary public education in Kentucky-unconstitutional under the common schools clause of the education article in Kentucky\u27s constitution. That case has been widely cited as having ushered in the adequacy movement in school-finance litigation and reform, in which those challenging state school-funding schemes argue that the state has failed to ensure that students are provided an adequate education guaranteed by their state constitutions. Since the Rose decision in Kentucky, some thirty-three school-finance lawsuits have reached final decisions in thirty-one states. For plaintiffs, the campaign has been relatively successful in court, as school-funding schemes in twenty-two states have been declared unconstitutional. Recently, however, a few courts seem to be taking a more cautious approach, either declining to become embroiled in school-finance lawsuits or declaring the school-finance systems constitutional and relinquishing jurisdiction. Yet the pace of litigation appears unabated. In light of the overall success of the adequacy movement in court, the wariness with which some courts have begun to approach the matter, and the continued press for school reform through the courts, it is fair to say that the adequacy-finance-litigation movement has matured and it is time to take stock of it. Two recent books-Eric Hanushek and Al Lindseth\u27s Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses and Michael Rebell\u27s Courts & Kids-do just that. And they reach very different conclusions (at least on the face of it)

Courthouses vs. Statehouses?

Just over twenty years ago, the Kentucky Supreme Court declared the commonwealth\u27s primary and secondary public-education finance system-indeed, the entire system of primary and secondary public education in Kentucky-unconstitutional under the common schools clause of the education article in Kentucky\u27s constitution. That case has been widely cited as having ushered in the adequacy movement in school-finance litigation and reform, in which those challenging state school-funding schemes argue that the state has failed to ensure that students are provided an adequate education guaranteed by their state constitutions. Since the Rose decision in Kentucky, some thirty-three school-finance lawsuits have reached final decisions in thirty-one states. For plaintiffs, the campaign has been relatively successful in court, as school-funding schemes in twenty-two states have been declared unconstitutional. Recently, however, a few courts seem to be taking a more cautious approach, either declining to become embroiled in school-finance lawsuits or declaring the school-finance systems constitutional and relinquishing jurisdiction. Yet the pace of litigation appears unabated. In light of the overall success of the adequacy movement in court, the wariness with which some courts have begun to approach the matter, and the continued press for school reform through the courts, it is fair to say that the adequacy-finance-litigation movement has matured and it is time to take stock of it. Two recent books-Eric Hanushek and Al Lindseth\u27s Schoolhouses, Courthouses, and Statehouses and Michael Rebell\u27s Courts & Kids-do just that. And they reach very different conclusions (at least on the face of it)

Achieving Adequacy in the Classroom

Though the last two decades have been marked by educational reform measures including standards-based reform, accountability policies, and “adequacy” litigation, there is one crucial element frequently absent from such schemes that is necessary to truly ensure that all children receive the educational resources and conditions necessary for an “adequate” education: meaningful reciprocal accountability. This article briefly discusses the recent history of education reform and its shortcom-ings to argue that a genuine reciprocal accountability system—one that provides effective monitoring and oversight mechanisms to local com-munities, parents, and students—is crucial to ensure the provision of an adequate education for all students. To be effective, such monitoring systems may require simple complaint mechanisms as well as training to local communities and students to hold state policymakers and school officials accountable. Only when such a ground-level monitoring system is established can we hope to achieve true adequacy in America’s classrooms

NEPC Review: Commercial Cash: How NY Schools Can Raise Extra Money Without Raising Taxes (Empire Center, September 2019)

Commercial Cash: How NY Schools Can Raise Extra Money Without Raising Taxes gets it half right. This issue brief makes the persuasive legal case that current policy and legal guidance from New York state education officials severely restricts the ability of school districts to allow any form of commercial advertising, making it difficult to raise revenues&mdash;without raising taxes&mdash;from advertising, sponsorships, and naming rights deals. The brief calls on lawmakers to &ldquo;free school districts from the current regulatory quagmire by eliminating legal barriers and permitting local decision-making.&rdquo; But that argument addresses only the revenue half of the equation. The other half, which the brief largely ignores, involves the significant costs of commercial advertising in schools. Those costs include the potential psychological harms stemming from corporate advertising; health-related harms that might flow from promoting foods and drinks with little nutritional value; educational harms coming from the schools&rsquo; and educators&rsquo; implicit endorsement of commercial culture and even the products themselves; and the emerging harm to privacy presented by digital data collection and targeted digital marketing.</p

NEPC Review: Commercial Cash: How NY Schools Can Raise Extra Money Without Raising Taxes (Empire Center, September 2019)

Commercial Cash: How NY Schools Can Raise Extra Money Without Raising Taxes gets it half right. This issue brief makes the persuasive legal case that current policy and legal guidance from New York state education officials severely restricts the ability of school districts to allow any form of commercial advertising, making it difficult to raise revenues—without raising taxes—from advertising, sponsorships, and naming rights deals. The brief calls on lawmakers to “free school districts from the current regulatory quagmire by eliminating legal barriers and permitting local decision-making.” But that argument addresses only the revenue half of the equation. The other half, which the brief largely ignores, involves the significant costs of commercial advertising in schools. Those costs include the potential psychological harms stemming from corporate advertising; health-related harms that might flow from promoting foods and drinks with little nutritional value; educational harms coming from the schools’ and educators’ implicit endorsement of commercial culture and even the products themselves; and the emerging harm to privacy presented by digital data collection and targeted digital marketing

Higher incidence of perineal community acquired MRSA infections among toddlers

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>A six-fold increase in pediatric MRSA infections, prompted us to examine the clinical profile of children with MRSA infections seen at Mercy Children's Hospital, Toledo, Ohio and to characterize the responsible strains.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Records were reviewed of pediatric patients who cultured positive for MRSA from June 1 to December 31, 2007. Strain typing by pulsed field gel electrophoresis (PFT) and DiversiLab, SCC<it>mec </it>typing, and PCR-based <it>lukSF-PV </it>gene (encodes Panton-Valentine leukocidin), arginine catabolic mobile element (ACME) and <it>cap</it>5 gene detection was performed.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Chart review of 63 patients with MRSA infections revealed that 58(92%) were community acquired MRSA (CAMRSA). All CAMRSA were skin and soft tissue infections (SSTI). Twenty five (43%) patients were aged < 3 yrs, 19(33%) aged 4-12 and 14(24%) aged 13-18. Nineteen (76%) of those aged < 3 yrs had higher incidence of perineal infections compared to only 2(11%) of the 4-12 yrs and none of the 13-18 yrs of age. Infections in the extremities were more common in the older youth compared to the youngest children. Overall, there was a significant association between site of the infection and age group (Fisher's Exact p-value < 0.001). All CAMRSA were USA300 PFT, clindamycin susceptible, SCC<it>mec </it>type IVa and <it>lukSF-PV gene </it>positive. Nearly all contained ACME and about 80% were <it>cap</it>5 positive. Of the 58 USA300 strains by PFT, 55(95%) were also identified as USA300 via the automated repetitive sequence-based PCR method from DiversiLab.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>CAMRSA SSTI of the perineum was significantly more common among toddlers and that of the extremities in older children. The infecting strains were all USA300 PFT. Further studies are needed to identify the unique virulence and colonization characteristics of USA300 strains in these infections.</p

Robust estimation of bacterial cell count from optical density

Optical density (OD) is widely used to estimate the density of cells in liquid culture, but cannot be compared between instruments without a standardized calibration protocol and is challenging to relate to actual cell count. We address this with an interlaboratory study comparing three simple, low-cost, and highly accessible OD calibration protocols across 244 laboratories, applied to eight strains of constitutive GFP-expressing E. coli. Based on our results, we recommend calibrating OD to estimated cell count using serial dilution of silica microspheres, which produces highly precise calibration (95.5% of residuals &lt;1.2-fold), is easily assessed for quality control, also assesses instrument effective linear range, and can be combined with fluorescence calibration to obtain units of Molecules of Equivalent Fluorescein (MEFL) per cell, allowing direct comparison and data fusion with flow cytometry measurements: in our study, fluorescence per cell measurements showed only a 1.07-fold mean difference between plate reader and flow cytometry data

Universal DNA methylation age across mammalian tissues

DATA AVAILABILITY STATEMENT : The individual-level data from the Mammalian Methylation Consortium can be accessed from several online locations. All data from the Mammalian Methylation Consortium are posted on Gene Expression Omnibus (complete dataset, GSE223748). Subsets of the datasets can also be downloaded from accession numbers GSE174758, GSE184211, GSE184213, GSE184215, GSE184216, GSE184218, GSE184220, GSE184221, GSE184224, GSE190660, GSE190661, GSE190662, GSE190663, GSE190664, GSE174544, GSE190665, GSE174767, GSE184222, GSE184223, GSE174777, GSE174778, GSE173330, GSE164127, GSE147002, GSE147003, GSE147004, GSE223943 and GSE223944. Additional details can be found in Supplementary Note 2. The mammalian data can also be downloaded from the Clock Foundation webpage: https://clockfoundation.org/MammalianMethylationConsortium. The mammalian methylation array is available through the non-profit Epigenetic Clock Development Foundation (https://clockfoundation.org/). The manifest file of the mammalian array and genome annotations of CpG sites can be found on Zenodo (10.5281/zenodo.7574747). All other data supporting the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request. The chip manifest files, genome annotations of CpG sites and the software code for universal pan-mammalian clocks can be found on GitHub95 at https://github.com/shorvath/MammalianMethylationConsortium/tree/v2.0.0. The individual R code for the universal pan-mammalian clocks, EWAS analysis and functional enrichment studies can be also found in the Supplementary Code.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 1 : Supplementary Tables 1–3 and Notes 1–6.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 2 : Reporting SummarySUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 3 : Supplementary Data 1–14.SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL 4 : Supplementary Code.Aging, often considered a result of random cellular damage, can be accurately estimated using DNA methylation profiles, the foundation of pan-tissue epigenetic clocks. Here, we demonstrate the development of universal pan-mammalian clocks, using 11,754 methylation arrays from our Mammalian Methylation Consortium, which encompass 59 tissue types across 185 mammalian species. These predictive models estimate mammalian tissue age with high accuracy (r > 0.96). Age deviations correlate with human mortality risk, mouse somatotropic axis mutations and caloric restriction. We identified specific cytosines with methylation levels that change with age across numerous species. These sites, highly enriched in polycomb repressive complex 2-binding locations, are near genes implicated in mammalian development, cancer, obesity and longevity. Our findings offer new evidence suggesting that aging is evolutionarily conserved and intertwined with developmental processes across all mammals.https://www.nature.com/nataginghj2024Zoology and EntomologySDG-15:Life on lan